Welcome back to my weekly blog. I decided to be a bit more detailed with what was going on behind the scenes, but I won’t apologize for trying to have a sense of humor or plugging my sponsors. If some of the fans had it their way I would stay silent and poor.

My training style comes from years in the wrestling room and being a part of the wrestling circuit, as well as training with MMA Camps like Team Quest, The Armory and Alliance Training Center. In my mind, I am here coaching based on these credentials. As I said previously, I am a “fighter,” who coaches to be able to fight. Of course, as a fighter I am not at Junior Dos Santos’ level and was honored to be helping his team. With that said, I wanted to make sure I lent 100 percent of my skills to his team.

Keon Caldwell

From the beginning, I felt Keon was not mentally tough enough to handle the grind of a show like “TUF.” Aside from the pressures of having your every move and comment being recorded for future publication, we went from testing the fighters for team selection immediately into preparing for their upcoming fights. In my mind, we had to push them.

Keon was struggling with the time away from his family. He began to withdraw from the group and became introverted. I was pulling for Keon, hoping that he would pull through the slump. I was giving him lots of positive motivation and trying to make sure he was aware of the opportunity that he had been given. The rest of the coaching staff saw Keon as a weak link, and I think they all felt that they would rather have a replacement then have a guy that does not want to be there.

I see the size of the opportunity. As a fighter, I would trade just about anything I have to be in the place that Keon and the rest of the guys were. This really is an opportunity of a lifetime – the short cut to the big leagues. No matter how they do on the show, they will likely improve whatever life they and their family currently have.

There are hundreds of people dying to be where he is/was. I made sure he knew the more time that passed, the worse he would feel about leaving. Ultimately, it was his decision, and he had made his mind up. I think if he really has the goal of being a mixed martial artist, he will regret this decision.

In my opinion, he made a bad decision for himself, and at the same time, if he really did not want to be there, he made the right decision for not hindering the team.

Breaking down Javier Torres vs. Chris Cope

Picking Javier was tough for me. I knew he was stubborn and inexperienced, but the other coaches were all for it and just blown away by his abilities. I was not quite as convinced. Sometimes coaching Javier was like asking Helen Keller to drive a big rig. The kid has a ton of talent and potential but refuses to except that he is not where he needs to be and decides to do his own thing. With all that being said, he was looking tough in training, but I had a feeling that he would some how find a way to not follow instructions.

I trained with Cope in the past. I knew that he has come a long way since then. He is a good guy with a great deal of ability. I knew he had great movement on his feet and decent cardio. He did a good job cutting angles, and he usually makes decent decisions in a fight. He has limited wrestling and grappling but is smart and can avoid danger. He has issues with his confidence once the fight starts but gains confidence and momentum as the fight goes on. Historically, he can be taken out of a fight, but you have to keep him out. Once Cope gets going, he is tough to deal with.

The gameplan

The gameplan was for Javier to control the center and work from the center out – to pressure and break Cope’s rhythm. We wanted to keep him off-balance with strikes, to clinch and work for the takedown to ground and pound. Javier was to look for the finish from every position. Javier was to use constant pressure and be as violent as possible. He was supposed to suffocate Cope and close the distance because Cope is dangerous from the outside.

While Javier was still very green, he was strong and aggressive and in the right situation can end the fight early. I was certain if we used this gameplan, we could in the very least steal the rounds and Cope’s confidence with the takedowns.

Coaching

Myself and the other coaches were starting to butt heads already. Junior had never coached before, and fights and trains as a heavyweight, which means he doesn’t cut weight, nor has he fought at a pace that isn’t conducive to a heavyweight fight. Junior has a limited understanding of English. This and my wrestling is why I was brought in. In the season opener, Junior said pretty much the same thing. His other coaches felt differently, and the tension was mounting.

Junior decided to bring in a strength coach that was not very good at his job, or at least explaining why he was having the guys train in such a manner. The Brazilian coaches felt I was pushing too hard because I was trying to maximize the time we had in the gym. Before the fight, it became an issue. I would suggest an aggressive yet normal approach to maximize the guys time and skills, trying to be more efficient. Junior and the other staff decided it was a wrestling vs. jiu-jitsu thing.

Honestly, I was ready to join Keon on the way out the door. But I had to remind myself that I was here to help these young men reach their goals. The other coaches in my opinion were there to create an image for themselves to increase their appeal to American fans. So far, they had shown me they wanted to tell the world they were on “TUF” with “JDS.” I am not sure if it was the production or the other coaches, but before long, Junior began to become more concerned with camera time and Americans seeing his face than the objective of helping these young men.

The Brazilian coaches said they felt that wrestling was boring and the way wrestlers trained was stupid. In a short amount of time, I went from “the guy that Junior was glad to have helping” to “the stupid wrestler that Junior felt was getting too much attention.” He even made it clear that he was the coach, this was his team, he was fighting for the belt and this was about him. I told Junior that I was there for the kids, that he invited me here to help these guys become better wrestlers, better fighters, and even more importantly, better men. I wanted Junior’s team to win the show. I think he saw things another way.

The fight

If I was fighting a former teammate of one of my coaches, I would listen to what my coach had to say. I am not sure if the issues with the other coaches and Junior played a factor in throwing the gameplan out the window, but Javier seemed content to stay in the clinch even though he was able to secure a takedown when he was not even in dominant position.

Javier was strong, and I knew if he worked the takedowns, he would take Cope out of the fight. His scrappy style might even secure him a finish. I was absolutely yelling at the top of my lungs for him to secure the takedowns he was being offered.

Javier had a clear path to victory and chose to go another route. Team Dos Santos’ biggest problem was not the lack of talent but the lack of us coaches coming together to teach the talent.

After the fight, it seemed like Junior and everyone on the team were content with losing. This Kumbaya moment was fake and for the cameras. I was mad. I felt like we beat ourselves, and it was not OK to be OK with that. We allowed Team Lesnar back in the fight, and without the control and continuity among us coaches, I felt we might be heading down a slippery slope.

I felt the need to to remind everyone what we were here for. I wasn’t going to pull any punches. I know a lot of guys that would kill for the opportunity to be here. I knew that us coaches needed the figure this out. We had a short amount of time to make an impact. We just lost a fight because the information we knew about Cope was not a part of the fight we fought.

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